2 Dogs & A Cat

I give Grace and Arnie my top rating (I don’t give 5 stars). On several occasions during the past seven years, they have taken care of my cat whenever I’ve been away for more than a couple days.

I wish I had read and listened to the reviews. For the area I lived in this company provided what I needed for a short time. But, if you have other choices, use someone else. I was hoping all would be wonderful and my Roxi would be able to receive potty breaks and exercise while I am working. I no longer have the trust and I don’t know at this point if I will hire another walker for fear of repeat behavior. They may work fine for vacationers but I warn you: Take caution if your pet has special needs.
Pros: Flexible with times of care. I work nights and needed (still need) someone early am and late evening.
–I requested to not have multiple tiny pieces of paper left after every visit and provided a book for logging visits and this request was complied with.
Cons:
1. Communication. They do not respond to questions in a timely manner. They claim it is because they are focusing on the pets they are caring for but I have seen pictures posted at all times of the day to Facebook when they can not respond to my inquiries until late in the day. However now that I have fired them, low and behold I am receiving emails and response to emails midday. Look at that a bill/​invoice is produced mid month.
2. Care. Although the reviews here are old they are accurate. I specified why I needed the times I needed for my walks but until I specifically requested the times were not shown for when she was walked– I was trying to prevent her from waiting 12 hrs between relieving herself. Changes in patterns are not relayed to me. I came home to find she had soiled her crate and the note states that she only peed and didn’t poop after daily peeing and pooping on walks. There is NO WAY that she was Walked for 30 min and did not poop. Furthermore, I am working. If she has not pooped I need to be informed– communication.
3. Billing. They state «we bill monthly and invoices are given at the end of the month». The end of the first month of service I inquired about the bill. I’m told, billing is the end of the month. This is Feb on the friday and march 1^st is monday– is that not the end of the month? To add insult to injury my invoice shows dates I have previously paid for. God forbid I’m trusting and just look at the amount and pay you… I would be overpaying for the services I am receiving. Meanwhile, you can inquire weekly about the dates and services needed but can not give the previous weeks bill? This also ties back to #1-​Communication.

A couple years ago we were contemplating getting a dog walker for our at the time future dog that we hadn’t yet received. We looked around and ended up finding 2 Dogs & A Cat on almost all of our searches. On their site they have a lot of great reviews, so we thought lets give them a try. Arnie came out to meet my husband for the first time and we were excited knowing that someone would be coming and taking care of our lil pup.
Our first instance where we questioned their dog walking was when we came home to find a puddle of dog pee outside of our lil girl’s kennel. It was so far away that it was obvious she had peed there and they didn’t bother picking it up.
The second time we notified them that we would not need service on a Friday but we would need service on Monday. They responded and were on board. We went to work on Monday and came home and our pup had saturated all her blankets in her kennel and was standing to avoid getting wet. There was no note anywhere to be found. So I text/​emailed them asking if they came. They responded and said that they forgot and apologized. Our poor girl was in her kennel for 12 hours without a break.
The third was when our in-​laws had planned on being at our house and we forgot to let 2 Dogs & A Cat know, so we just figured she would get a walk regardless. Our in-​laws were at our house from 10 – 2. When we got home we saw the note on the counter that said they had been there at 12:00 and 2:30. We called our in-​laws and asked if the dog walker had stopped by while they were there and they said no. So we text/​emailed asking what time they really came because we were getting constricting info. Arnie responded and said sorry it must have been 2:00 and 3:30.
We didn’t push the issue anymore but mentioned what happened to our in-​laws. They gave us a bird cam that records video and pictures with time stamps. So we thought we’d give it a try. We were paying for 30 minutes a day and the week we had the cam the longest time they were in our house between 4 minutes and 16 minutes a day. The 16 was one day during the week the rest was between 4 and 8 minutes. We cancelled service at the end of the week. Not only did we see the lack of service that was provided but they were bringing their toddler with them into our house without our knowledge or consent. Had something happened to their child while in our house we would have been held accountable.
When we told them about what we saw their only response in email was «Again we are sorry for any miscommunication and wish you good luck». The only reason I am sharing it to let others know what happened to us. Our dog was not able to tell us how she was being cared for.
We now have an amazing dog walker who loves our dogs. And we know they are walked good because they are not energetic when we get home. That’s what a dog walker does, spend the time walking them. I wish the best of luck to 2 Dogs & A Cat and hope that over these last couple years they have gotten better or learned not to misuse trust.

(They have changed their contact info to incorrect information in an attempt to hide from bad reviews. They are still in Everett at 425−379−6136. They have tried changing their name on Unilocal but it’s still 2 Dogs & a Cat. They are Dog Walkers and Pet Sitters.)
I had to remove my previous 5 star review because we came home early from our last trip and discovered Arnie wasn’t giving our old kitty the supplements he needs. When asked why, he said he didn’t see the note that was prominently displayed on the counter along with the jar of fiber supplement, the cat food (which he found), and a measuring spoon. It saddens me to have to write this, we’ve been using them for years and it makes me question what happened on all of our other trips.
I urge people to use nanny cams if you use them. We thought we could trust them but found we shouldn’t have. Your pets can’t tell you what happens when you’re gone and Arnie has a track record according to Unilocal reviews (especially filtered reviews) of not doing what he’s supposed to.
On the bright side, we found a much better pet sitter who charges less.
8÷11÷13: I wasn’t going to respond to Grace’s comments here, but a couple of things need to be said. In the past they have requested that I leave special instructions for them at the house, so that’s what I did. I have, for years, left all special instructions on the counter with the food, under the money. It is unbelievable that Arnie took the money, found the food, but didn’t see the 8.5×11 note addressed to him. Even if by chance he went momentarily blind and didn’t see the note, one would wonder why I left a Costco sized container of fiber and measuring spoons prominently displayed with the food and money.
To address the point of why didn’t we talk to them in person. Clearly we did as I stated in my initial review. I asked Arnie why it wasn’t done, he said he didn’t see the note… and where do you take it from there? I wasn’t going to argue with him. Either his attention to detail is so horrific that he can take his money off of a page of instructions addressed to him and completely not see it — in which case he shouldn’t be caring for people’s pets; or he ignored our instructions — in which case he shouldn’t be caring for people’s pets.
I never said it was «no big deal.»
Arnie didn’t show up until an hour after I e-​mailed to tell them we were home. He came anyway, presumably so he wouldn’t have to offer a refund for the day he didn’t come. He didn’t do what we asked for the first day and did nothing on the 2^nd day, yet we paid them the full amount. To make matters worse, because they have a key to our house, we had the expense of changing our locks. Keep this in mind when you give them a key.
They are claiming that Mike M.‘s review is a duplicate because he is my husband. Yes he is my husband but his experience is unique. We were never really on the same page with this company. Mike is a separate person from me, he has unique opinions, unique experiences, and writes his own reviews with no prompting from me. Grace was completely fine with us both writing a 5 star review but now that we caught them not doing what we hired them to do, suddenly they aren’t okay with it and think Unilocal should remove his review. If it’s a duplicate now, it was a duplicate then. Why only now is it an issue for them?
Their response to their 7 one star reviews is always «why didn’t you take it up with us personally?» They are more concerned with being defensive than fixing what is wrong with their business model. When you have 7 reviews all saying the same thing, it’s clear you have a problem. I urge you to do as they request. Read their «over 4» positive filtered reviews. But especially read their four filtered one star reviews. If you still feel safe leaving your pets in their care, PLEASE use a nanny cam.
9÷3÷13: Grace added: «Obviously, this is a he-​said, she-​said situation. We really wish this person would have addressed any concerns with us directly (whether that was in person, via email, phone). If there were concerns they shouldn’t have waited to see if they could find cheaper care. We would have done addressed their concerns & tried to correct them, had we known.»
He said, she said: This makes no sense as they’ve not denied that they neglected to do what we asked of them. Their only defense is, «I didn’t see the note.»
They wish we had addressed our concerns with them directly, whether in person (I did), via email (my husband did,) or phone (why bother?)
If there were concerns we shouldn’t have waited to see if we could find cheaper care. We found BETTER care that just happens to cost less. How long that took us is no business of theirs. How long it takes people to get around to writing reviews is of no import. The issue at hand is that THEY ARE NEGLECTING PEOPLE’S PETS!
I’m not sure how they could have possibly corrected their misdeeds. Go back in time?

First, they just didn’t show up yesterday. They didn’t contact me, email me, text me, call They just didn’t show up. Based on what they knew my plans to be, my dogs would have been abandoned with no potty break or human interaction for 11 hours. (Fortunately I stayed home to discuss what I had seen on Saturday).
They also blatantly disregarded specific directions to walk them separately, creating a safety risk for my dogs, a training problem for me, and a legal liability for me. One of my dogs can be reactive, which is why I specifically asked them to be walked separately, for their safety, and the potential safety of other people walking. My neighborhood has a lot of off-​leash dogs, and something really bad could have happened.
What their response was when I caught them: «Pets act different depending on who walks them so I thought I’d see how they did with me.» In complete disregard for my instruction to walk them separately, without discussing with me and without informing me.
The claim that my dogs walked well with them. I watched them leave my house, my reactive dog barking, and my younger dog inciting his excitement by jumping, spinning and biting my reactive dogs’ face. Both dogs were pulling. When they returned, their excitement level was lower, but they were still pulling. That is not my definition of «doing well.»
Regardless of whether they did well or not, my instructions were specifically to walk them separately, and it was not their call to change those instructions without asking first, and certainly not without notifying me that they were no longer following my instructions.
What other instructions do they decide to not follow? Your pet’s medication schedule? Feeding schedule? Are they actually walking the dogs at all?
On Saturday, Arnie was here for 20 minutes only. Yet the billed me for 30 minutes. Based on that and what I read on this site, I wonder if he has done anything but run in, leave a piece of paper on the counter, and run back out again.
Even more disturbing is how he mishandled one of my dogs. She showed signs of extreme distress and was completely oblivious to her fear. And that’s in front of me!
He also put the wrong harnesses on the wrong dogs, even though they are color coded and they were given clear directions which harness belonged to who. The dogs are 25 pounds difference and the harnesses are different sizes. This is another safety risk as dogs can escape a harness if it isn’t clipped on the front and especially if it isn’t fitted correctly.
When you hire a dog walker/​pet sitter, you are entrusting your precious pet. You believe they will show up and they will not be left abandoned. You believe that they would follow your instructions for their care and not decide to ignore those instructions. You would think that when this is pointed out, they would do whatever it took to make things right.
When confronted, the admitted it all, yet defended their actions, was rude to me and then started to place the blame on me. The most bizarre: I caused them to be sick, and that’s why they didn’t show up.
A couple of things I learned from this:
– Nanny cams for your dog sitters. Monitor if they are coming and going when they say they are (these people weren’t) and you can tell a lot by how they prep for the walk. (Recommended to me by a legitimate dog walker).
– Surprise them. Be home one day. Walk in on them. Note their reaction. If they are not happy to see you, ask yourself why. Note your dog’s response to them — is it typical? One of my dogs did not greet the dog walker (the one who was fearful when he put the harness on her. She is a wiggle-​butt who is super excited to say hi to any person. That was odd (until I saw how he handled her). My other dog barked and didn’t want the dog walker to enter my living room, where I was. Neither was interested in him when he picked up the harnesses. All this is very unusual behavior. (Recommended to me by a legitimate dog walker).
– If you have neighbors who are home during the day, ask them to track the dog walker’s comings and goings.
– If you are out of town, have friends, relatives and neighbors drop by unannounced to make sure everything is okay. (Recommended by a legitimate pet sitter).
I am a progressive positive dog trainer and so sick that I caused my dog distress by making the wrong choice for pet sitter/​dog walke

Arnie was great! Free consultation, coming to our house to answer all of our questions and go over our needs. Our last pet sitter was hard to get ahold of, which of course made me fear of her reliability. Its tough to feel comfortable hiring someone to care to be responsible to care for your pet while you are away. 2 Dogs & A Car disuaged our fears. We hired them to check in on our reptile for our week long vacation. Very reasonable prices. I like that they confirmed what we needed done during the visit, then confirmed the dates by e-​mail closer to our vacation.
They even emptied the trash so it wouldn’t stink like poop when we got home! More than I had asked for. They even offer services like getting your mail or watering plants, but we didn’t ask for anything this time. Its tough to find someone willing to sit for animals other than dogs & cats, so they are a great find. I like that this is Arnie and Grace’s full time job, and that they have been in business since 2001. Having a website with all the info and being able to call, e-​mail, or text makes it easier too. We won’t hesitate to use them again!

Updated on 4÷30÷2012 —
We use 2 Dogs and a Cat for weekday visits for our puppy, and we could not be happier! Each week we can set or change the schedule, and when we come home, we have a note letting us know how our puppy did during the visit. It is not only wonderful to be able to trust them to take great care of our dog, but also respect our home. I highly recommend them to everyone!
UPDATE:
We just fired Arnie. We had used Arnie’s services for a total of 3 months. Our Shepherd was 2 months old when we started Arnie for a much needed potty break and some play time. Initially we had him come over for 15 minutes, but everyday we would come home to find him agitated and still very full of energy. 2 months in, we decided to have Arnie come over for a full half hour to make sure that our puppy gets lots of stimulation during the day.
We were very surprised when there was no behavior change once we upped Arnie’s time. On days that we were home, our puppy was a totally different dog and we couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him. About the same time, we started monitoring our security system and very quickly realized that Arnie was never stopping for more than 15 minute on any given week and still charging us for the full half hour. There were days where he was in and out in 11 minutes. He also realized that he wrote his arrival time on the notes that never matched with the monitoring system and he never wrote his departure time. We monitored his arrival and departure times for 2 more weeks, giving him enough chances but realized that he has never given us the quality of service we agreed upon this whole time and was blatantly cheating us out of money every visit.
When we confronted Arnie, he confessed immediately and we had no option but to fire him. For someone who has been in the pet walking business for 11 or so years, it was disheartening to receive such dishonorable service.

I’m choosing to update my (previously 5 star) review based on my more recent experiences and observations.
During our last trip we left notes for the care of the cats, and specified that supplements needed to be added to the cats food, as one of our older cats has developed digestive issues. We came home early to escape some rather inconsiderate neighbors at a campground and found their food had not been mixed.
As always, the note was left on the counter by the cat’s food and under the money to pay for these services to be sure the note was noticed. As the money was taken we know the instructions were received, but this still didn’t happen. This lines up with other reviews we had noticed here recently which were already causing concerns.
I cannot comment on how they handle complaints like this in person, as we really saw no point in pursuing it, and didn’t bring it up at the time as we hadn’t yet found a replacement. However I have read their interactions with other reviewers, and their apparent lack of concern for this obvious trend among their clients has been the final straw for me. If you receive one bad review you may just have a snarky customer, but when you have a string of them, including two customers who previously were loudly praising you, it is time to take a look and what needs to change.
Since moving to another service we have taken another trip and our cats acted considerably more content and well-​adjusted when we returned than they ever had in the past. While I don’t think they ever just didn’t show up, it does seem like the extra attention we were paying for may not have been happening
⁸⁄₁₃:
After I edited my review, the business provided feedback that I had not contacted them directly first. To be fair I reached out to them directly summarizing some concerns I had, overall, and offering them a chance to make this right. Specifically I mentioned their statement that they didn’t see our note being a larger concern, as it was under the money they received and left on the counter per our original conversation, which means the note was either ignored, or demonstrates a complete lack of attention to details. These concerns were not answered and no further effort was made to «make things right,» the same excuse and defensive stance you can see on all their negative reviews was simply restated.
I had intended to update my review to account for any positive actions or experience in trying to discuss this with them directly. I have no such experience to report. I’m not really sure how one could make up for neglecting the care of a pet, but restating poor excuses certainly doesn’t help.